2021-03-15 13:51:20

What Is an Asteroid?
Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. So to summarize it more, we can say a smaller version of a planet.
There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them live in the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Importance of Asteroids
Since asteroids formed at the same time as other objects in our solar system, these space rocks can give scientists lots of information about the history of planets and the sun. Scientists can learn about asteroids by studying meteorites: tiny bits of asteroids that have flown through our atmosphere and landed on Earth’s surface.
Several NASA space missions have also flown by and observed asteroids. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft landed on Eros, an asteroid near Earth, in 2001. Then, the Dawn spacecraft traveled to the asteroid belt in 2011 to orbit and study the second largest object there, Vesta. Vesta is so large it's like a small planet. In 2012 Dawn left Vesta and went into orbit around the largest object in the asteroid belt, dwarf planet Ceres.
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What is 2001 FO32, the largest asteroid passing by Earth this year?
This is the largest asteroid predicted to be closest to earth on March 21st, this year.
Called 2001 FO32, the near-Earth asteroid will make its closest approach at a distance of about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) – or 5 1/4 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Scientists know its orbital path around the Sun very accurately, since it was discovered 20 years ago and has been tracked ever since.
For comparison, when it is at its closest, the distance of 2 million km is equal to 5¼ times the distance from Earth to the Moon. Still, that distance is close in astronomical terms, which is why 2001 FO32 has been designated a “potentially hazardous asteroid”.
During this approach, 2001 FO32 will pass by at about 124,000 kph – faster than the speed at which most asteroids encounter Earth. The reason for the asteroid’s unusually speedy close approach is its highly eccentric orbit around the Sun, an orbit that is tilted 39° to Earth’s orbital plane. This orbit takes the asteroid closer to the Sun than Mercury, and twice as far from the Sun as Mars.
If interested, Read more.